A family affair
Wilson family comes together on PICA project
Trending
A rare Friday work session for the volunteers of Pride In Community Appearance was a family reunion of sorts for group leaders Jan and Phyllis Wilson, of Fort Dodge.
The crew working at Terry Moehnke Veterans Memorial Park was joined by six members of the extended Wilson family, who came from Michigan, West Virginia and Virginia.
The group included Jan and Phyliis Wilson's children, Brad Wilson of Michigan and Jodi Olson, of Yorktown, Virginia.
It also included their four grandsons: Luke Wilson, of Houston, Texas; Jonathan Olson, of Morgantown, West Virginia; Nick Olson, of Morgantown, West Virginia; and Alex Wilson, of Stevensville, Michigan.
All of them have worked on Pride In Community Appearance (PICA) projects before. Some of them have been to Terry Moehnke Veterans Memorial Park previously.
But Friday was apparently the first time the whole family had worked together on a PICA project.
"This will be a first, I think," Jan Wilson said.
Jodi Olson said the rest of the family loves to do the outdoor chores that are at the core of PICA's mission.
"We've always come to help out and tried to plan our vacations around it," she said.
The grandsons agreed that spending time with their grandparents was the reason for the work session reunion.
"They rock," Jonathan Olson said.
Today's football game that pits the Iowa State University Cyclones against the West Virginia University Mountaineers in Ames is what prompted the gathering to happen this weekend.
Brad Wilson and Jodi Olson graduated from Iowa State. Jonathan Olson and Nick Olson graduated from West Virginia.
With the family coming together for the game, the consensus was that they should put it some time with PICA.
PICA volunteers usually do their work on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"They wanted to have a project on Friday," Jan Wilson said.
So he planned a morning of trimming trees at the veterans park overlooking Badger Lake.
The family came together on Thursday.
They were to attend today’s game at Jack Trice Stadium before heading home on Sunday.